I am aware that I may ruffle some feathers with this post.I understand that some hunters want to challenge themselves with difficult hunting tactics and bowhunting turkeys would surely be difficult.I am also aware that in the west or plains states that there is much open ground and after shooting a turkey you may be able to keep your eyes on him for a couple of hundred yards.However,here in the deep south,the land is very heavily forested and after shooting a gobbler you would most likely lose sight of him very quickly.This would reduce the chances of locating him after the shot considerably.Now,maybe I am old school and don't understand why you want to use a less effective weapon to hunt turkeys.Why shoot a 3 or 3 1/2 inch shotgun with a turkey choke when you could take an old 2 3/4 inch 12 or 20 gauge with a modified choke.And why not use your squirrel shells so that you would have to get them into about 20 yards.Personally, I don't approve of bowhunting turkeys and wish it were illegal.Any comments?

i always wanted to tag a bird with a bow, and nearly pulled it off this past november. but i'll readily admit that i am not the bowshot i was 25 years ago. there's always the thought in the back of my mind that i may make a bad shot and loose the bird,,,i don't want to do that . a lost bird is a wasted bird . if it were outlawed today i wouldn't loose sleep over it .
along the ruffled feathers statement, the bird i NEARLY got a shot at was called in and i wasn't in a blind . i must say it was rather exciting for a few minutes there,,,but that back of the brain thought is always there.

I know a few guys that shoot them with bows. I've argued long and hard with them about it. Even with a good hit birds are sometimes lost with archery equipment. Vital hit birds can go along ways without stopping and they don't leave blood trails or any other sign like a deer would. They do it for the challenge yet they sit in a blind which takes away the challenge of drawing anyways.

I bowhunt turkeys some every spring and some in the fall as well. I'm sure I will lose one someday but that kind of thing happens. How many birds are rolled over each year by our 3.5" super choked guns only to get up and run or fly off because we made a bad shot or too long of a shot. I would think way more than is lost by bowhunters. I hate losing any type game but I can't see where there would be any difference in bowhunting turkeys as compared to any other type game. Sorry but I respectfully disagree.

sorry tc but i'll have to agree with wordbird this time i've seen to many people who never pattern their guns and can't tell yardage wound birds most bow hunters know their bows and there limits there 's poor hunters on both sides i'm not saying any one here is a poor hunter

If one is saying that the bow is a less efficient weapon than the gun, which it is, why also advocate the use of less efficient guns...where is the logic there?

The bow and inefficient gun would have one thing in common. You would have to draw the turkey inside twenty yards in either case. Which is the allure of bowhunting to begin with. I'm pretty sure they were bowhunting deer and turkeys on this continent long before the gun arrived. The bowhunters probably frowned upon the use of guns so it has gone full circle.

As for sheer numbers, far more turkeys are wounded and lost by guns than bows, just because the gun hunters outnumber bowhunters by probably ten to one. A single bow vs a single gun, yes the gun is far more efficient.

"The joy of living is his, who has the heart to demand it." Teddy Roosevelt

If you pattern your gun and only take shots under 40 yards you are pretty error free. You might lose a bird occasionally but not alot. You practice with a bow and pefect your skill your still going to lose a number of birds. There is a difference.

Good points made. I agree that hunt for hunt, more will be lost by bowhunters than gun hunters but since the ratio is so skewed toward the gun hunters, the ratio of lost birds is also skewed toward the gun hunter. My only point in the other post is that game is game. I know we have this great reverence for the wild turkey and rightfully so but losing a deer is just as bad. There are countless numbers of deer lost each year from both bow and gun hunters but I don't hear anyone crying foul there.

> If you pattern your gun and only take shots under 40 yards you are pretty error free. You might lose a bird occasionally but not alot. You practice with a bow and pefect your skill your still going to lose a number of birds. There is a difference. >

I fully agree.

In discussing any type of hunting though, it is not judicious to only compare the merits of each implement because that doesn't take into account inexperience and operator error. I takes a lot of beginning turkey hunters several seasons to bag their first bird and not because of a lack of shot opportunities or mentoring. Failure to get their cheek down on the stock, having the gun go off prematurely, flinching in anticipation of recoil and shooting at strutting birds are all part of the learning curve and result in scores of wounded and unrecovered birds every year.

"The joy of living is his, who has the heart to demand it." Teddy Roosevelt